2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[diffuser]

WAtanabe: I spoke to the drivers about the vibrations, and it felt like they were much better than in the Bahrain test. Lance (Stroll) even said that it was 'about half the problem.'"

However, at the moment, the power unit (PU) is not being used to its full potential.

"We are still limiting how we use the PU. At this point, we are not at the stage where we can say anything about the performance of the PU or the car, so we are not yet using it in the way that it should be."
"It's natural for the engine to vibrate, but it was within the acceptable range on the bench. However, when we installed it in the car, abnormal values ​​started appearing, and it reached a level that damaged the PU and motor, which was the case in Bahrain."

In the limited time before the opening, several countermeasures were tested, and one of them proved effective this time.

"We tested a number of ideas on Sakura's Real Vehicle Dyno (VTT) and one of them was a hit. Of course it's still not perfect, but it's a big improvement."
"We talk every day. We are working together to determine how we can quickly ensure Aston Martin's competitiveness, and what specific measures we should implement and when."

He also emphasized that the PU and chassis cannot be considered separately.

"It's not just about the PU or the car body. It's important to make the whole car competitive."

It's clear that Honda don't think the issue is solely PU related, but also that AMR disagree with Honda about that conclusion.

From what I can see in forums, AMR GP don't have a VTT in silverstione. They we gonna rent one in Austria but ran out of time. So there are likely problems on the chassis side. I have no experieince in this though.

[Redragon]

Pedro De La Rosa in spanish TV said Honda is working on software and redisigning the engine and it is a slow process

https://x.com/i/status/2030680380110434738

[diffuser]

Pedro De La Rosa in spanish TV said Honda is working on software and redisigning the engine and it is a slow process

https://x.com/i/status/2030680380110434738

I wonder how accurate "an engine redesign" is. They're probably working on combustion, which could endup being a redesign of the top half of the ICE, intake heads, maybe pistons too. Doudt the bottom end would get touched. Anyways, we'll likely never know.

[Otromundo]

Well, I will continue with my habit of waiting for Suzuka to give my opinion with more reasoning. Also, in this case, I think that for obvious reasons of proximity to Honda, prestige (something very important for the Japanese, as usual) and time, it may be the first occasion to see clear progress. As long as I observe consistent progress, I will be happy.

[V10FURY]

This weekend was a disaster for sure with both cars failing to finish the race as expected and being way off the pace. It sounds like the battery has been shielded / insulated in some ways against the vibrations, but the car itself and drivers are still experiencing them. Hopefully the running the team did in the race helped with set up and gave the chassis design a direction to work towards as Honda tries to fix this engine/ PU combo to run properly.

Everyone seems to think the car is down on power by 30- 80hp which might be true. Didn’t everyone have a goal of 500 hp engine power and 500 hp electric power for this new formula, or am I mistaken? How does a company like Honda not make a 500 hp 1.6 Turbo V-6? I have made street car engines with 4 cylinders and 2 liters make that much power on pump fuel, that have better reliability than this current Honda set up!

Based on this start the Honda had they installed a good anti-stall/ WRC style fuel dump to get the turbo off the line, and perhaps Honda has gone the Ferrari route with a smaller frame turbo?

https://x.com/amrf1insights/status/2030 ... caJzJSzEsg

Alonso sure looked like he hooked up and had a lot of grip , which of course was assisted by his soft tires on these opening laps, and we don’t know his fuel load of course. It looks like the car has some potential here if they can find a fix for the engine side of things and eliminate the other reliability issues currently plaguing this team. You can tell that Alonso still has it even at this stage of his career if they can give him a competitive car.

Fingers crossed by Suzuka they can turn this engine all the way up and see exactly what the deficit is to the top teams. I think they will be around 1.5 seconds off the pace by Suzuka if they can implement some serious fixes so the engine can run at full power. Challenging Williams, Alpine and even Hass as well, who looked quick in the race. Or perhaps that is delusional, wishful thinking!

[Anony Mous Engineerd]

Higher-than-normal vibration levels were anticipated from early in the project, but design compromises, reportedly influenced by Adrian Newey's reluctance to stiffen the chassis, left the problem unresolved. He is a stubborn man. The true extent of the vibration issues only became clear during winter testing, due to limited running time beforehand. Batteries are literally being shaken to death. Fixes are reportedly in development but not yet implemented. I'd reckon the majority of fixes are chassis side, not engine.

HOnda is a whipping boy, the engine is great. the battery is good, but fragile. the transmission caused a money-shift in early pre-season practice, so there are some issues there... software or hardware is uncertain.

THey will get it right in a few races, and be a force to be reckoned with...

just wait...

[gnocchiF1]

Higher-than-normal vibration levels were anticipated from early in the project, but design compromises, reportedly influenced by Adrian Newey's reluctance to stiffen the chassis, left the problem unresolved. He is a stubborn man. The true extent of the vibration issues only became clear during winter testing, due to limited running time beforehand. Batteries are literally being shaken to death. Fixes are reportedly in development but not yet implemented. I'd reckon the majority of fixes are chassis side, not engine.

HOnda is a whipping boy, the engine is great. the battery is good, but fragile. the transmission caused a money-shift in early pre-season practice, so there are some issues there... software or hardware is uncertain.

THey will get it right in a few races, and be a force to be reckoned with...

just wait...

What is this ? Honda said publicly that the engine was down on power, yet you make up issue to tell us Honda did a fanstastic job and the issues are actually all caused by Newey. Honda fans are really something else.

[Xyz22]

Higher-than-normal vibration levels were anticipated from early in the project, but design compromises, reportedly influenced by Adrian Newey's reluctance to stiffen the chassis, left the problem unresolved. He is a stubborn man. The true extent of the vibration issues only became clear during winter testing, due to limited running time beforehand. Batteries are literally being shaken to death. Fixes are reportedly in development but not yet implemented. I'd reckon the majority of fixes are chassis side, not engine.

HOnda is a whipping boy, the engine is great. the battery is good, but fragile. the transmission caused a money-shift in early pre-season practice, so there are some issues there... software or hardware is uncertain.

THey will get it right in a few races, and be a force to be reckoned with...

just wait...

What is this ? Honda said publicly that the engine was down on power, yet you make up issue to tell us Honda did a fanstastic job and the issues are actually all caused by Newey. Honda fans are really something else.

The most hilarious claim is that Newey asked Honda to completely redesign the engine in March 2025 lmao.
Both Aston and Honda were behind schedule which led to this situation. Now they have to work together to came back, both from the chassis and engine side.

[HPD]

What is this ? Honda said publicly that the engine was down on power.

Can you show me the article with the quote from the Honda engineer? You're stating something I didn't read. Honda did say they're running with less power for reliability reasons, not that they have less power than their rivals.

[AR3-GP]

The most hilarious claim is that Newey asked Honda to completely redesign the engine in March 2025 lmao.

It's not a claim. It was said by Honda. What is hilarious about that?

[ispano6]

Higher-than-normal vibration levels were anticipated from early in the project, but design compromises, reportedly influenced by Adrian Newey's reluctance to stiffen the chassis, left the problem unresolved. He is a stubborn man. The true extent of the vibration issues only became clear during winter testing, due to limited running time beforehand. Batteries are literally being shaken to death. Fixes are reportedly in development but not yet implemented. I'd reckon the majority of fixes are chassis side, not engine.

HOnda is a whipping boy, the engine is great. the battery is good, but fragile. the transmission caused a money-shift in early pre-season practice, so there are some issues there... software or hardware is uncertain.

THey will get it right in a few races, and be a force to be reckoned with...

just wait...

Indeed, Honda knew in 2023 the MGU-K at 350kW for 2026 would require significant reliability measures to handle the vibrations for such output.

The main engineer behind the MGU-K success from the previous Red Bull era is Tetsushi Kakuda and he is fairly confident of Honda's hybrid side of the RA626H. It is the combustion/fuel performance that needs to be improved. MotoGP expertise will be tapped where it can contribute.

Article from 2023.

Specifically, this means lowering the cap on fuel flow and otherwise reducing engine output while dramatically increasing output from the MGU-K to 350 kW, or roughly three times its current output. At the same time, the configuration will be simplified to eliminate the MGU-H. These changes in regulations are consistent with the direction Honda has been taking toward the realization of carbon neutrality, giving profound significance to the development of future technologies to realize these goals. Therefore, Honda made the decision to take on a new challenge in F1 racing.

In general, CNF tends to be more difficult to vaporize than traditional fuels, so it is important to collaborate with fuel manufacturers to try and develop fuels that more readily vaporize. On the other hand, there is also a need to develop engines that facilitate combustion of fuels that are difficult to vaporize. On the hardware side, large output MGU-Ks change a car’s vibration profile, so it is essential to ensure reliability to withstand the change. With the larger amounts of energy repeatedly stored in the ES and then used, development needs to focus on minimizing degradation of performance. With elimination of the MGU-H, highly efficient and effective energy management systems must also be developed when relying on the MGU-K alone.

With power unit development being frozen from 2022, development is now limited to reliability improvements. Under these conditions, Honda is contributing to improved performance for the teams it supplies by raising the limits of its power units and maximizing their potential while maintaining reliability. Concurrently with these activities, it is quietly developing a new power unit for launch in 2026.

https://global.honda/en/tech/motorsport ... wer_Units/

[LM10]

Of course it’s not solely an issue on Honda’s side, if any. Do people seriously think that all of a sudden Honda forgot how to build basically the same ICE of the last years?

In the last interview Watanabe even told that they’ve not observed vibrations on the bench and once everything came together with the chassis, the issues started. This speaks volumes.

[Rikrikrik]

I still thinking they will find solutions for all thing more quickly than all people think. But, the promisses needs to be proved it. In Japan we need able to see a lot of improvement by Honda, if the same things still happen there after thoso interviews... They dont know what they doing and just play with media. Alonso's reactions this year will tell us a lot, more than any other year.

[Xyz22]

The most hilarious claim is that Newey asked Honda to completely redesign the engine in March 2025 lmao.

It's not a claim. It was said by Honda. What is hilarious about that?

So you think they remade the entire engine in just 8-9 months?

[AR3-GP]

The most hilarious claim is that Newey asked Honda to completely redesign the engine in March 2025 lmao.

It's not a claim. It was said by Honda. What is hilarious about that?

So you think they remade the entire engine in just 8-9 months?

It was never said that Honda changed the combustion engine. It was said that the layout of the hybrid system was changed.

This is a little bit of semantics. When you say "engine" I think "PU". In any case:

"Since Mr. Newey joined Aston Martin in March 2025, almost everything we had been doing changed. Of course, we couldn't change the engine structure, but everything else changed, including how to install the peripheral equipment and the body."

For example, at the “2026 Honda × Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team New Partnership Launch Presentation” held in Tokyo on January 20, Tsunoda explained the reason for the two-tier battery (energy store/ES) as follows: "As we progressed with the development of the new car, the team requested, 'We want it to be as compact as possible. We wanted to make it as short as possible (in overall length),' so we went with a two-tier configuration." This too was a request from Newey.

“Mr. Newey asked, ‘Could we do it this way?’ For us, it was a time-sensitive deadline, but...”

Significant parts of the power unit were changed when Newey arrived, at his direct request.

https://www.as-web.jp/f1/1293808?all